TORONTO — Canadian social service agencies have been allocated $2.3 million (US) by the Claims Conference to help Holocaust survivors in Canada this year.
Canada is one of 43 countries that will receive a total of $168 million (US) in assistance in 2009.
“In these times of severe crisis for Jewish philanthropy, the need for the Claims Conference funds for social services is even more essential to the well-being of elderly Nazi victims,” Claims Conference chair Julius Berman said last week in a statement.
He added: “The Claims Conference is committed to addressing the growing needs of Nazi victims as they age and to easing, as much as possible, the lives of elderly Nazi victims in their last years.”
Officially known as the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Claims Conference was established after World War II to recover proceeds from unclaimed Jewish property in what was then East Germany and to administer social service grants from the German government.
The organizations in Toronto due to receive grants are Baycrest ($55,000), Circle of Care ($887,891) and Jewish Family and Child ($255,267).
In Montreal, the recipients will be the Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors ($916,944) and Montreal Child Survivors, Hidden Children ($5,600).
Also in line for funds are Jewish Family Services of Ottawa ($40,000) and the Jewish Family Service Agency of Vancouver ($155,000) and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre ($16,500).
The allocations in Canada will be used for home care for the house-bound, as well as medical assistance, food programs, transportation, emergency cash grants and socialization programs.
In an interview, Greg Schneider, CEO of the New York-based Claims Conference, said Canadian organizations will receive $100,000 more this year than in 2008.
“In these depressed economic times, with Jewish philanthropy in crisis, [we] felt it was important to maintain and even increase funding for survivors,” he noted. “Seventy years ago, the world abandoned these Jews, and today, we cannot abandon them again in their last years when they need so much.”
The Claims Conference provides a wide range of services, including:
• In-home services that help survivors with such activities as housekeeping, bathing, dressing, laundry and shopping;
• Service programs that enable a variety of agencies to provide such services as home care, money management and meals on wheels;
• The maintenance of Israeli institutions that care for survivors in nursing homes, hospitals and day centres.
• Life-saving services for impoverished survivors in the former Soviet Union.
• Expanded services in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico.
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The Claims Conference also announced this month that it has allocated more than $400,000 to assist survivors in areas of southern Israel under rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.
